Home » June, 2009
You are currently browsing entries posted in: June, 2009
A proposed amendment to the Education Act is causing conflict among stakeholders. On one hand, the Ministry of Education says the amendment has been on the table for a year but others in the system say not so. The grey areas are the establishment of a Teachers’ Service Commission and the process of consultations. If […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Education |
Comments Off on Education Ministry seeks to implement teacher commission
The Ministry of Education had another bone to pick with the SJC president. He said when one off his school wardens, a single mother, came to his office to ask for assistance in paying an eleven hundred dollars fee for SJC, he made a check and found out that last year’s fee was three hundred […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Education |
Comments Off on S.J.C. tuition increase transformed to donation
The minister of Education, Patrick Faber has another controversy on his plate and it has to do with the Sadie Vernon High School off Mahogany Street in Belize City. At the heart of this dispute are the Parent Teachers Association and the teachers. We say teachers because the parents support the school’s principal, Laura Baptist […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Education |
Comments Off on Dispute of teachers/principals at Sadie Vernon
There is trouble at BELTRAIDE, the beleaguered trade and investment agency of G.O.B. Earlier today, five members of staff, including two in senior ranks, handed in their resignation. The situation has been topsy-turvy since last year when a new Executive Director was brought back from the US and installed as head of BELTRAIDE. But that […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on BELTRAIDE finds new direction and loses 5 workers
Christine Perriott versus Belize Telemedia Limited; it’s a highly publicized case that’s taken many turns in the courts. The most recent round went in favour of Telemedia. The background is that Perriott sued the utility company in 2007 because she felt her employment was wrongfully terminated. But Telemedia subsequently took issue with Perriott’s attorney, Lois […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Trials |
Comments Off on Lawyer for Christine Perriott removed from case
On Monday’s newscast we reported on the vicious murder of a woman on Central American Boulevard. Police have confirmed that the woman is forty-one year old Ella Mae ‘Gial Gial’ Bennett, a Honduran domestic of Mopan Street. Bennett, who has lived in Belize for the past nineteen years was last seen alive on Saturday night. […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Body of woman identified as Ella Mae Bennett
In an update to the murder of twenty-five year old Jonathan Faber who was shot and killed on Saturday afternoon, police have arrested and charged a nineteen year old man. Alexander Underwood was taken to court late Monday afternoon and was remanded by Magistrate Dorothy Flowers for the crime. Underwood is expected to return to […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
1 comment
Over the past two days, the bodies of two Guatemalan nationals were found floating in the Mopan River. In the first case, shortly after six Monday morning, police discovered the body of thirty-two year old businessman, Egidio Fidel Perez, of San Marcos City in Guatemala. Perez was wearing a t-shirt and underwear. But while the […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Two bodies fished out of Mopan River
And the ninth annual Trafficking in Persons report has been released in the United States and it is not good news for the jewel. Belize is one of three CARICOM countries placed on the U.S. Tier Two Watch List. That means the country has not been making satisfactory efforts to deter trafficking of persons for […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Uncategorized |
Comments Off on US report puts Belize on watch list for human trafficking
UNESCO’s report on the state of Belize’s Barrier Reef, a World Heritage site, has confirmed that there needs to be better protection, not only in writing, but in practice of the country’s natural resources. APAMO, The Association of Protected Areas Management Organization has written the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and is tasking […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Environment |
Comments Off on APAMO calls for better protection of reserves
It is not a world Heritage site but still very recognized; that’s the Belize Zoo. SMART Belize donated approximately five thousand dollars to the zoo today through SMART Cares, a program put in place by the company to give charitable assistance. The money was raised through a raffle that the company held at the beginning […]
Written on June 23, 2009 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Smart donates $5,000 to the Belize Zoo
The controversy on the procurement of medical supplies at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital continues unabated and there are more allegations and rebuttals. Up to news time, the parties were still engaged in negotiations, that is the Belize Medical and Dental Union and the K.H.M.H. Board. That meeting started around five-thirty this evening and there […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Health |
Comments Off on B.M.D.U. still in discussions with K.H.M.B. board…
While doctors continue locked in negotiations with the management of the K.H.M.H., there is one man who has a lot to answer. News Five has obtained a copy of a Memorandum dated May thirteenth, signed by the Acting C.E.O. of the K.H.M.H. Laurel Grant and addressed to the Director of Finance. The document states that […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Social Issues |
Comments Off on …And salary of chairman questionable
And still on the contracts, there is more information available about medical suppliers to the K.H.M.H. News Five has obtained a copy of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies Tender of the Evaluation Committee Procedural Report, which was to be tabled to Cabinet on March thirty-first of this year. Three suppliers stand out. The matter was […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Health |
Comments Off on More bloated pharmaceutical contracts surface
Still on the issue of the reports of fleecing at the K.H.M.H., the Prime Minister’s office says that the P.M., who leaves for New York on Tuesday, has commissioned a team to investigate the allegations of corruption in supplies procurement. The team has been given a specific mandate to conduct a preliminary quick investigation into […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Health |
Comments Off on PM commissions investigation into supplies procurements
It was another deadly weekend and criminals were on a rampage. Tonight, there are four murders to report —three which took place in the City alone. We start with the early morning homicide that occurred shortly after four on Saturday. Thirty-nine year old Mayhar Singh—an office assistant for Attorney’s Arthur Saldivar and Dickie Bradley—was shot […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on 4 murders over the weekend; including City Councillor’s brother
And while Singh’s post-mortem has not been completed, shortly after two this afternoon, Pathologist, Doctor Estradabran, was called to the scene of another murder. This latest homicide involves a woman, in her mid-thirties, whose body was found partially decomposed and half nude. The body, which has still not been identified, was found in a pool […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Body of partially nude woman found
The third murder of the city occurred shortly after two o’clock Saturday afternoon when a group of friends socializing on Yarborough Road came under fire. Twenty-five year old Jonathan Faber also known as ‘Chap’ received several shots to the body and head and later died at the K.H.M.H. News Five’s Duane Moody found out that […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
1 comment
But a man from Benque Viejo del Carmen will spend the remainder of his life behind bars on a murder conviction. Miguel Matus was on trial in the Belmopan Supreme court late last week for the shooting murder of seventeen year old Patricia Tzib of Cristo Rey. Tzib was shot in the head on October […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Benque Viejo man sentenced to life for Murder
The problems at a high school in the Cayo District continue to mount and this past Friday things got physical. There wasn’t a fight, but police had to be called out as teachers protested the removal of furniture and books from Western Christian Academy which was recently scheduled to be closed by Yudora Millhollon Guerra, […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Education |
Comments Off on Faith Mission closes Western Christian Academy
If you have been waiting to indulge in CARICOM spirits, well there is good news because beer from the region will soon be available locally at competitive prices. In the case of rum, a wide variety will now be entering the Belize market. This is all in line with the Treaty of Chaguaramas that Belize […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Uncategorized |
Comments Off on CARICOM treaty to change price of alcohol
There were many issues… and dirty laundry aired at last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives. A number of amendments to the constitution were tabled, two that change appointments to key roles in government and are being hotly debated in the public domain. Prime Minister Dean Barrow proposed to allow persons with dual citizenship […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Commentary |
Comments Off on Former attorney general speaks about AG post…
One area that government is not seeing much opposition is a move to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court. Courtenay this morning said he believes that “the abilities and qualities of the C.C.J. are as good if not better than those at the Privy Council”. He […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Commentary |
Comments Off on …And replacement of Privy Council with C.C.J.
We reported two weeks ago that the National Fire Service had received eight right-hand fire trucks from the United Kingdom. The Ministry of Public Utilities and National Emergency Management stated in a release that the trucks were bought for four hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. But The News, an online U.K. newspaper said that Durham […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Fire trucks were bought… not donated
We reported last week Tuesday that U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor’s, membership in an exclusive women’s club was causing controversy as the nominee headed for the confirmation hearings in mid-July. Well, there is now word that Sotomayor has quit her membership in all-women’s club, Belizean Grove. Since her nomination, Sotomayor received criticism by several […]
Written on June 22, 2009 | Posted in
Uncategorized |
Comments Off on US judge quits membership in Belizean Grove
